


Down for the Count

by Imalmostmeagain



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Sick Evie (Disney), Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24719845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imalmostmeagain/pseuds/Imalmostmeagain
Summary: Being in Auradon doesn't mean that the Core 4 were always happy and healthy.
Relationships: Evie & Jay & Mal & Carlos de Vil
Kudos: 26





	1. Down and Out

**Author's Note:**

> Just some cute fluff while Evie is sick.

Auradon had been the new home for the Core 4 for the past 3 months. It was very different from the Isle- they had sunlight that wasn’t interrupted by clouds, new clothes, and even piles of fresh food that looked like they could be mountains.

It was 6:30 am when Evie’s alarm went off. She had to get up early to complete her rather extensive makeup routine. She had to wash, moisturize, prime, and apply. Even though Evie had been applying make up for years, it still took her around 30 minutes to do because she had to make sure everything was perfect, which took time. Once she finished her makeup, she had to style her hair. Since it was Monday, Evie decided to keep it simple- she added some loose curls and a few small braids with one of her signature crowns in the front and she was good to go. As she was exiting the bathroom, she saw Mal sitting up in her bed while rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Good Morning, Mal”, Evie said sweetly. “Morning Evie,” Mal said with a hint of sleep still in her voice. As Mal rose to her feet and headed into the bathroom, Evie decided to get dressed: a royal blue blouse with some leather pants that had small white crowns on them and black boots with blue heels. She decided to wear her bejeweled red heart necklace along with some basic crown earrings. She added some gold rings to her hands and 2 gold bracelets to her left hand that went along with the leather bracelet on her wrist. At this point, Mal had come out the bathroom and quickly got dressed in a black shirt that had green and purple paint splatters, black jeans, and black boots.

“Ready to go Mal?”, Evie questioned as she grabbed her school bag and checked the clock- 7:30 a.m. **“Yeah, I’m coming”** , she responded as she grabbed her bag and her history textbook. Carlos and Jay were waiting outside the girl’s door arguing about food. **_“Well, honey can’t be vegan because bees make it”,_** stated Jay. _“But insects don’t count, do they?”,_ questioned Carlos. “Hi boys,” Evie greeted as she gave them a small smile. “You guys ready to go to class?” The boys nodded and with that they were on their way. On the way to class, Ben and Lonnie joined the small group. “Morning guys,” Lonnie smiled as she said hello to the VKs. “Hi” the group said in unison. After about 10 more minutes of walking the main path, the group had to split to get to their classes. Mal and Carlos had calculus together, Jay and Lonnie had Auradon History together, Ben had Formal Speaking, and Evie had chemistry.

Evie’s first period chemistry class went great, she loved it of course. However, as her and Doug were discussing how to perform chemical titrations, Evie could feel a slight tickle in the back of her throat. She chalked it up to having a dry throat and told herself that she would drink water after class, as food and drinks weren’t allowed in the room. After 50 minutes, the bell that indicated first period was over rang out. Evie gathered her things and said bye to Doug as class was dismissed. She had about 5 minutes to get from chemistry to Villain History, which was across campus. Evie made quick work getting to class and took her seat near the middle of the classroom. She decided now was as good a time to drink water seeing as she had to quickly run across campus, plus; she still had that tickle in the back of her throat. Second period went by without a hitch and so Evie was on her way to third period… Remedial Goodness 101.

Evie took her seat to the right of Mal and smiles at her purple haired friend. This was the only class, besides lunch, that all 4 of them had together. Even though it was a class that taught them to be “good”, they still liked that they were able to take it together. As Evie listened to Fairy Godmother ask questions, she could feel the tickle in her throat become more persistent, more like an itch now. She raised her hand and asked to be excused to the bathroom. Evie ran to the nearest bathroom and locked the door. She checked to see if anyone was in the stalls, once the coast was clear, she started to cough. It was more of a fit, she coughed to get rid of the itch, but it took about a minute before she actually felt relief. Evie washed her hands and unlocked the door to make her way back to her goodness class. She sat back down next to Mal as the boys wrestled about who was gonna answer the next question. Mal spared her blue friend a glance, who gave her a small smile. Mal reciprocated the gesture and returned her attention back to the board. **“Evie’s rather quiet”** she thought. “I just need to make it to lunch and then I can go back to the dorm” Evie thought to herself. 15 minutes later, the bell rang, and the Core 4 stood up to head to lunch.

As Evie walked with her family, she could feel her head start to throb. She pushed the pain to the back of her mind and continued to walk to the cafeteria with her friends. The boys were always excited for lunch and quickly ran to the lines and started serving themselves food as they left the girls behind. Mal grabbed a tray and began to put food on it as she talked to Evie. **“How was chemistry?”** “It went well. We’re learning about how to perform chemical titrations. It’s not necessarily hard, it just requires a lot of patience because you have to let the known solution slowly drip into the unknown solution” **“Oh, interesting”**. Mal and Evie continued to talk in the line about school and other things till they got to the table the boys were at. Ben, Doug, Lonnie and Jane had joined them. Evie ate her food and tried to join into conversations when she could but the dull throbbing in her head soon turned to pounding and she couldn’t think anymore. “If I just finish what’s left on my tray, then I can excuse myself and just go back to the dorm.” she thought. She ate a few more bits of her sandwich and drank some water.

“Alright guys, I’m gonna go work on some sewing before class”, Evie told the table as she stood up and grabbed her lunch tray. Sounds of “okay” and goodbye” were heard as Evie cleaned her tray and walked out the cafeteria. It normally took Evie 10 minutes to get back to the dorm from the cafeteria but this time it took almost 25. She had to stop often and take deep breaths due to her headache. Finally, she had made it back to the dorm where she dropped her schoolbag on the floor. She carefully took of her boots as to not aggravate her headache more, closed the curtains and searched for some Advil. Once she found the pills, she grabbed the bottle of water from her bag and chugged it with 2 pills. She crawled underneath her blankets and closed her eyes.

3:00 rolled around, the end of the school day. Mal, Jay, and Carlos met up after their last class, just like they always did. They waited for Evie for about 5 minutes before Carlos questioned, _“Hey, where Evie?”_. It wasn’t normal for Evie to not show up without saying anything. **_“Hey maybe she’s back at your dorm”,_** stated Jay. **“Yeah, let’s go check”** said Mal. She knew that Evie was probably okay, it was Auradon after all. But she couldn’t help the sinking feeling in her stomach when she thought about how Evie wasn’t with them. As the Core 4, well 3 at the moment, rushed back to the dorm, they weren’t prepared for what they saw. The dorm was dark, and Evie was curled up in bed with the blankets over her head. Mal and Carlos walked over to Evie’s bed while Jay walked to the window and slowly drew back the blinds. Carlos bent down and carefully removed the blankets from Evie’s face as he gently shook her awake. _“hey evie, wake up”_. Evie groaned in pain as she slowly opened her eyes and was met with sunlight. _“hey, there you go. evie what’s wrong?”_ “mmm, i don’t feel well”, she softly rasped out. Mal placed a hand on Evie’s cheek and pulled her hand away as Evie tried to, unsuccessfully, roll away from her touch. Mal walked to her side of the room and gestured for the boys to follow. **“Okay, what do we do?”** _“Well, when I do research on my phone, it says to take her temperature using a thermometer.”_ “ **Well, do you think anyone has one we can borrow?”** **_“We can ask the nurse”_** _“Okay Carlos, what else do we have to do?”_ **“It says to take her temperature, give her a warm bathe, maybe give her some medicine, give her some soup, and let her get plenty of fluids and sleep.”** “ _Okay, well can you guys help me get a hold of some food and medicine before you go to tourney practice?”_ Yeah, of course the boys responded.

As the 3 were about the leave the room, Jay stopped them in their tracks. **_“Wait, shouldn’t someone stay with her, just in case?”_** “ _Oh, yeah. We don’t wanna leave her by herself”. **“You guys go, I’ll stay with her** , _Jay stated. Mal and Carlos nodded and quickly left the room to get the supplies they needed. Jay walked over to Evie’s bed and kneeled in front of her and began to gently run his fingers through her hair. **_“don’t worry princess, we’re here”_** , he stated as he gently kissed Evie’s forehead and she closed her eyes. “Jay”, Evie rasped out, “will you lay with me?” she asked as she reached her right hand out. **_“I’d be glad to princess”._** Jay climbed onto the right side of the bed behind Evie and wrapped his left arm around her as she gently rolled towards his chest and snuggled into him.

Carlos and Mal made it to the nurse’s office and asked if it were possible for them to have a thermometer and some cough medicine. The nurse had no issues with that and gave them 3 thermometers to have and a couple bottles of cough syrup, just in case anyone else got sick. They then made their way to the cafeteria to get some bottles of water, orange juice, and a couple bowls of soup. Once they decided that they had everything they would need, they silently ran to the dorm. Mal quietly opened the door for her and Carlos and made their way to the round table in the middle of the room. **_“Hey guys, did you get everything?”_** _“Yeah, it was pretty easy. We tried to be quick though.”_ **_“hey princess, wake up”_** , Jay said as he softly shook his left arm to arouse her. “mmm, jay” Evie groaned out. **“Hey, you have to open your mouth so we can take your temperature.”** “okay”. Evie opened her mouth wide enough for Mal to stick the thermometer in her mouth. They waited until they heard the beep. Mal was quick to check her reading, **“It says 100.5. So, it’s definitely a fever but it’s not too bad. You guys go stretch and get ready for tourney. I’ll keep an eye on her”,** Mal told the guys. **“We’ll be fine. She’s asleep right now so I’ll wake her up later and make sure she eats and gets something to drink. I’ll just do some homework in the meantime,”** Mal smiled. The boys nervously left but reassured Mal that they would be back after tourney practice.

It was 4:30, the boys wouldn’t be done with tourney until 6:15p.m. meanwhile, Mal had calculus and anatomy homework to focus on. She started to work on calculus, or as much as she could, before she gave up. She wasn’t the best at math but could answer some questions without help. After about 30 minutes, Mal started to get frustrated with the fact that she couldn’t figure out any of the other questions with out assistance. Evie could probably help but Evie was still asleep. **“Oh well, time to switch to anatomy,”** Mal said as she moved aside her chemistry homework and grabbed her anatomy textbook. 27 minutes had passed by when Mal saw the blankets on Evie’s bed move and heard a soft sound. Mal closed her textbook and walked over to Evie. **“Hey E, are you okay?** ” “M…” “ **Hey, do you think you can sit up and eat and maybe take a shower?”** “mmm yeah.” Mal slowly helped Evie rise into a sitting position and went to go grab the soup off the table.“ Evie’s eyes were still closed as Mal slowly spoon fed her about half the bowl of chicken soup before Evie began to whine, “no more M”. **“mmm that’s okay, you ate enough. Let’s get you cleaned up so you can go back to bed, okay?”** , Mal softly asked. Evie just nodded her head as she allowed Mal to guide her to the bathroom.

Once inside, Mal helped Evie gently sit on the toilet seat while she walked to the tub. **“Wait, the internet said that you need to take a bathe, so that’s what we’re gonna do okay?”** Mal thought that maybe telling Evie everything that she was gonna do would help the situation a bit. As Mal set the water to warm and allowed the tub to fill up, she turned back to Evie and kneeled in front of the bluenette. **“Okay E, I’m gonna strip you now so you can get in the bath.”** Evie gave no indication that she had heard Mal, so she shrugged and began to remove Evie’s clothing. The jewelry went first, followed by the blouse and socks. The leather pants were the hardest to remove since they were tight, and Evie wasn’t necessarily helping Mal remove _her_ clothes. Mal managed okay by herself and left Evie sitting on the toilet seat as she turned off the faucet and felt the temperature of the water. **“okay E, we’re all good to go”** , Mal whispered to Evie as she went to take off Evie’s final articles of clothing: her bra and panties. Mal softly led Evie into the tub, where she cried out from her achy body coming in contact with the cool water. **“hey, hey it’s okay”** , Mal reassured her. She let Evie lay her head against the tub as she grabbed the makeup wipes off the counter and wiped off as much make up as she could. Afterwards, she made quick work of cleaning Evie’s body, so that she could get the girl dressed and back into bed.

After about 10 minutes, Mal decided that now was a good time to let Evie out and help her get dressed. Evie tried to keep her eyes open as she saw Mal grab a fluffy, blue towel and walk back to her, **“Stand up”**. Evie tried to stand up and could feel her whole-body ache. Mal came over and wrapped Evie up and was basically carrying her back to the dorm room. She walked over to Evie’s dresser and grabbed a pair of black panties, some shorts, and one of Jay’s old t shirts that fit Evie like a dress. Evie was still standing by her bed but Mal could see that it was taking all of Evie’s strength just to be upright. She helped Evie into her underwear and shorts before Evie started to whine again, “M…please”. Mal looked at Evie and told her to raise her arms so that she could finally be done. As soon as Mal put the shirt on, Evie collapsed onto the bed behind her and curled up. **“Wait a minute,”** Mal said to no one in particular as she walked back to the round table. She grabbed the cough syrup and gave Evie the recommended dosage and made her sip a small amount of water before wrapping Evie into her blanket and kissing her forehead. **“Sweet dreams blue”.**


	2. The night continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mal continues to take care of Evie through the night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bold is Mal speaking  
> Italics is Carlos speaking  
> Bold and Italicized is Jay speaking

Mal looked at Evie as she slept, listening to her breathing. It was now about 5:50 p.m. Mal still had plenty of time to continue working on her anatomy homework. “ **By the time the boys finish practice and take a shower, it should be about 7:00, if coach doesn’t make them run laps again”,** Mal said to herself. “And when Carlos gets back, I’ll finally be able to finish my calc homework”, Mal smiled. Every now and then, Mal would look up from her textbook and notes to glance at Evie and make sure she was okay. Mal worried a bit because they normally never got sick. Living on the Isle, where most of the “fresh” food was still mildly moldy and rotten, helped many of the VKs build up strong immune systems. Mal figured that since they were in Auradon with new foods and germs, there were things that they just weren’t immune to yet.

Mal didn’t realize how focused she was on her notes until the boys quietly came barreling through the door _. “Hey, how is she? Is she okay?”_ , Carlos asked. Ah Carlos, ever the worry wort, Mal thought. **“Yeah, she’s doing alright. She woke up about an hour after you guys left; she ate about half a bowl of soup before she wanted to stop and then I gave her a bathe.”** **_“Did you give her the medicine?”_** , Jay questioned as he gently stroked Evie’s hair. **“Yeah, I gave it to her right before she fell asleep, I also gave her some water. Hey Carlos, can you help me with the Calc homework? I was able to answer a few of them on my own but now I need help”.** _“Sure Mal”._ The Core 3 gathered at the round table in the middle of the room and began to work on their homework assignments: Carlos helping Mal with Calculus and Jay reading his history book. 2 hours went by before Jay let out a soft groan, **_“Ugh, this is too much information. I don’t think I can do anymore.”_** _“Same”_ **“You guys wanna watch a movie?”** **_“Sure, I’d rather do anything but this.”_** As Mal closed her textbook and stood to stretch out her back, Carlos walked over to the Tv and selected the movie “Jurassic Park”. _“Hey, a dinosaur movie, that looks cool”_ , Carlos said.

Mal and Jay quickly joined Carlos on the couch and got comfortable. Jay’s left arm was rested behind the couch with mal to his left and Carlos to her left, so Mal was in the middle. About halfway through the movie, Carlos could feel his eyes getting heavy, so he turned to Mal and Jay. Mal’s eyes were still fixated on the tv but Carlos could tell that she wasn’t watching it while Jay was asleep, snoring lightly. Carlos turned off the tv as he rose, _“Hey Mal, I think we outta call it a night”_ **“mmm yeah, I,,I think that’s best,”** she said with a yawn. She gently shook Jay awake and told them that they were going to sleep. **_“Alright, well… we’ll see you guys in the morning okay?”_** On the way to the door, Jay stopped to give Evie a kiss on the cheek, followed by Carlos who kissed her on the forehead. “Night” “Night guys”.

Once the door was closed, Mal changed into a black tank top and into some pajama pants. She quickly brushed her teeth, turned off the lights, and climbed into bed; she could just wake up a bit early and shower in the morning. It took Mal about 5 minutes before she fell asleep.

Mal didn’t know how long she had been asleep before she heard soft whimpers coming from across the room. **“E?”,** Mal questioned as she sat up. She looked to her left and saw that the clock read 1:42 am. Mal got out of bed and shuffled towards the bundle of blankets that was Evie. **“E?”** , she whispered. Out of nowhere, Evie bolted out of the bed towards the bathroom and began to vomit. Mal was 1 step behind her the whole time. **“Oh Evie,”** Mal softly spoke. Evie was violently throwing up into the toilet as Mal grabbed her hair and held it up. It took 2 minutes for Evie to stop and rest her back against the tub. **“I’ll be right back Evie”.** Mal left the room to grab 3 hair ties, a bottle of water, and the thermometer. She used one of the hair ties to quickly put her own hair up before walking back to the bathroom and tied Evie’s cobalt locks into a loose bun on top of her head. Fortunately, as soon as Mal finished tying her hair up, Evie leaned forward and began to vomit into the toilet again. There wasn’t much Mal could do but rub Evie’s back soothingly and speak sweet nothings, **“yeah, you’re okay”**. Evie just nodded her head as she wiped her mouth and leaned back against the tub, the cool porcelain providing relief to her aching body. Mal figured that Evie wasn’t done for the night and decided to stay in the bathroom, just in case Evie needed to throw up again, it’ not like they had a bucket or a pan to keep by her bed.

“Mal,”, Evie gently opened her eyes to look at her purple haired sister, “can you hold me?”, she asked softly, her voice rasped from vomiting. **“Sure, E”.** Mal sat with her back against the tub and opened her legs so that Evie could lay between them. Evie carefully crawled into the space between Mal’s opened legs and rested her left cheek against Mal’s chest as Mal wrapped her arms around Evie and rested her chin on top of the bluenettes head. “tell me about your day” **“Well, not much happened. Calculus went well. We’re learning about differential equations which sort of makes sense, but also doesn’t. Carlos gets it though, so he helps me when he can. Writing class was okay. Usually I try to think of it like I do my art, there’s a story everywhere, you just have to be willing to find it. Sometimes it’s easier for me to find the story and verbalize it… other times I can’t find the right words and I get… frustrated.”** Mal looked down and saw that Evie had fallen asleep in her arms. She sat against the tub, slowly rocking from side to side as she just looked at Evie. She rocked her sister for about an hour before her arms got tired and she stopped. She allowed her eyes to close as she let her head fall back and rest against the tub.

Sometime within the 2-hour nap that they took, Evie had moved to where her forehead was resting against Mal’s chest. She was sleeping soundly until she felt something crawling up her throat. She couldn’t turn around to face the toilet fast enough which resulted in her throwing up on the first thing in front of her: Mal. As soon as she felt it come in contact with her shirt, Mal was awake. **“Ah, NO!”** Mal yelled and stood up as Evie emptied the contents of her stomach, or what was left of it anyway. Evie had her head down as Mal grabbed a towel and wash rag and ran the rag underneath some cool water. Mal looked back at Evie and saw that her shoulders were moving, **“Hey, are you okay?”** As Evie raised her head, Mal could see why: Evie was crying. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I..I.. didn’t mean to. it was an accident”, she cried. Mal kneeled by Evie and cupped her cheeks, **“Hey, hey hey, it fine. You didn’t mean to, you’re sick, it happens. I needed to take a shower anyway, “** Mal chuckled. **“Do you think you’re done for the night?”** “uhhh I think so”, Evie replied softly with a small sob. **“Okay”.** Mal took off her tank top and her pants and was left standing in blue panties. She wrapped up her soiled clothes and placed them in a corner of the bathroom. She grabbed some mouthwash and gave it to Evie to clean her mouth out. After Evie spit the mouthwash into the toilet, Mal grabbed the washcloth and wiped Evie’s eyes, her nose, and her mouth and chin area before tossing the cloth in the corner with her clothes.

She picked Evie up bridal style and carried her to her bed, taking into account how hot her body felt, before gently laying her down. **“I’m gonna give you some water and take your temperature before giving you some fever medicine okay?”** Evie nodded gently as tears still escaped from her eyes. Mal placed the thermometer in Evie’s mouth and picked out some fresh clothes as she waited. When the thermometer beeped, Mal was back by her side. **“102.9…aww Evie. I’m so sorry”** , Mal softly whispered as she looked at Evie with a soft look. **“Here, take some fever reducer and sip some of this water okay?”** Evie sat up and took the medicine and drank the water with no qualms. Once done, she laid back down and looked at Mal with sad, tired eyes, tears still steadily flowing. **“I’m gonna take a shower and when I come back, I’ll lay with you yeah?”**

Mal moved quickly and was done with her shower and dressed within 15 minutes. When she came out the bathroom and back into the bedroom, she could see that Evie had fallen back asleep. As Mal walked closer to the bed, she could see that Evie had stopped crying but that didn’t help the fact that she still had tear stains on her cheeks. As Mal climbed onto the left side of the bed, she stole a glance at the clock: 5:13 a.m. She gently pulled Evie towards her and let her head rest between her chest. She pulled the blanket up to Evie’s chin and kissed her forehead. **“oh Blue, what is going on”** , she whispered as she just stared at the sleeping princess in her arms.


	3. Hotter and Hotter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2 of Evie's sickness. This is part 1

Evie’s alarm went of at 6:30 am the next morning, just like it normally did. Mal opened her eyes and looked down at the sleeping girl in her arms. She was breathing heavily and had tear stains running down her cheeks but at least she was sleeping peacefully. Mal carefully inched away from Evie until all her limbs were off the bed. She carefully walked over to Evie’s bedside table and silently shut of her alarm. Class didn’t start till 7:30 a.m. but Mal couldn’t leave Evie by herself all day while she went to class. As if they read her mind, the boys quietly came shuffling into the room. _“Morning Mal, how’d it go last night?”_ , Carlos questioned as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. **“mmm, last night was kinda rough”,** she said as Jay walked over to Mal’s bed where a sleeping Evie lay. **“She woke up around 1:30 this morning by vomiting. She made it to the bathroom but then threw up again about 5 minutes later.”** Jay stroked Evie’s blue tresses while Carlos took a seat at the round table. **“ She fell asleep in my arms foe about 2 hours before she woke up again and threw up on me. Poor thing started crying and apologizing like it wasn’t an accident”.** **_“That would explain her face”,_** Jay stated as he examined Evie’s features. **“Yeah. I stripped and cleaned up her face before carrying her to my bed. I took her temperature; it was higher than yesterday. _”_** _“What was it?_ ”, Carlos asked with concern in his voice. **“102.9º F.”**

**“I gave her some fever reducer and some water before I went to take a shower. When I came out, she was asleep.”** **_“We should wake her up and take her temperature again, just to see if there’s a change.”_** “ _You guys do that, I’ll be back. I’m gonna go grab us some breakfast real quick”,_ and with that Carlos was out the door. Mal walked over to Jay and Evie and crawled onto the bed behind Evie. Jay grabbed the thermometer off the bedside table and walked to Evie. He gently shook Evie, making sure not to disturb her stomach too much. **_“hey, princess, we need you to wake up”,_** he coaxed gently. Evie let out a slight groan before she whined at having to wake up. **_“i’m sorry, we have to take your temperature again, princess”_** , Jay sadly said. Evie feverishly looked at Jay as she opened her mouth, after a minute, the thermometer beeped. Jay gently grabbed the thermometer and read the information aloud, **_“103.1º F”._** Mal and Jay sighed as he placed the thermometer back onto the bed side table. **“The medicine isn’t working, HER TEMPERATURE IS STILL GOING UP”** , Mal yelled. Jay gently rubbed Mal’s shoulder as she took a deep breath. **_“Hey it’s okay. If her fever doesn’t go down by tonight, then we’ll take her to the nurse and the Fairy Godmother.”_** Carlos entered the room with a couple bottles of apple juice, water, some fresh fruit and pancakes with syrup.

The Core 3 took a seat at the table and began to eat as Mal and Jay briefed Carlos what was going on. **_“Her temperature isn’t dropping, so if it doesn’t break by tonight then we decided to take her to the nurse and tell FG.”_** **“I’ll stay with her again while you guys go to class.”** _“Don’t you have art club later today?”_ **“Yeah”.** _“It’s okay, we’ll go to class and then we when it’s over, we’ll take over Evie duty.”_ **“Okay, sounds like a plan”** , Mal said as she looked back towards her bed at Evie. Her eyes were open, but they had a glazed over look to them as she looked at her friends. Jay and Carlos kissed Evie goodbye as they left to get ready for class. Mal walked back over to the bed and sat in front of Evie; it took Evie about a minute for her eyes to focus on Mal’s face. Mal quietly studied Evie’s face: her eyes were dull and lacked her usual look of joy and mischievousness, her skin was rather pale and flushed, and she was slightly sweating. **“It’s still too early to give you more medicine, so how about we just get you some cool water and a wet washcloth?”** Mal rose up and headed towards the bathroom to run a washcloth under some cold water; she also made as stop at the table to grab some cold water before heading back to Evie. **“Here E, you gotta sit up so you can drink the water.”** Evie slowly sipped the water until about a quarter of it was gone, Mal figured that would do for now as she didn’t want Evie to dehydrate. Evie laid back down as Mal placed the cold washcloth on her forehead.

**“Are you still cold?”,** Mal asked as she brushed a strand of hair out of Evie’s face. Evie looked towards Mal and nodded just enough for her to see. **“Well we can’t keep you wrapped up in these thick blankets. How about I get you a thin sheet for now to help keep you cool down.”** Evie nodded again as Mal maneuvered around the room and replaced her thick blankets with thin ones from the closet. Evie smiled feverishly at Mal as she crawled back into bed with Evie. Mal allowed Evie to cuddle up to her as she smiled down at her. **“You know E, you’re handling this situation really well. I know it’s taking a toll on you but you’re really cooperating. So, thank you,”** Mal said as she planted a kiss on Evie’s forehead. “mmm” was Evie’s only reply. **“You want to watch a movie or something? You must be tired of sleeping right?”** “mmnnooo”, Evie drawled out. **“Come on E, let’s watch Jurassic Park. It’s a dinosaur movie, you’ll like it.”** Mal carried Evie to the couch with her thin sheet and laid rested Evie on the right side of the couch. Mal and Evie watched the movie all the way through before Mal got up and gave Evie some more fever reducer. **“Okay, Evie. If you’re still tired, then I ‘ll give you some water and put you back into bed.”** “please”, Evie rasped out. Evie sipped another quarter of the water bottle before Mal gently helped Evie stand up and walk to her bed.

**“Okay, Blue. Sleep well.”** As Evie once again fell asleep, Mal went to the bathroom to clean up the mess they made last night. She rinsed of her clothes in the tub and wiped down the counters, the sink, the toilet, and the bathtub with bleach. Evie was, of course, asleep when Mal had finished with the bathroom. Since Evie was asleep, Mal took it upon herself to take a nap as well, seeing as how her sleep was cut short last night. **“Night Blue”.**


	4. Breaking a Fever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good things comes the Core 4's way

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long it took to write- I had work and I was feeling a bit sick. The next 2 chapters will be a lot longer.

Mal awoke at 12:30p.m. when the boys walked into the room during their lunch period. **_“Hey Mal, how’s it been”,_** Jay asked as he placed some meals on the round table. _“Has she been asleep all day?”,_ Carlos asked as he glanced towards Evie. **“No, she was awake for a while and we ended up watching that Jurassic Park movie. I gave her some fever reducer and cold water, replaced her blanket with a thin sheet, and put a cool washrag on her forehead. Hopefully, it works and her fever drops.”** “Here, make sure you eat”. The boys brought Mal and subsequently Evie, pepperoni pizza and pumpkin soup. “We still have 2 and a half hours of class before we switch shifts, so just hang on till then okay.” The boys and Mal ate lunch together while trying to finish Jurassic Park. After about 45 minutes, Jay started to clean up the takeout containers as Carlos and Mal spoke. _“So, we have about an hour and a half left. We’ll try to be back as quick as possible”,_ Carlos said as he passed Mal some water. **“Okay, thanks guys. I really appreciate everything.”** **_“No problem Mal. We gotta get going but we’ll be back. See you soon.”_** Jay gave Mal a quick kiss on her forehead while Carlos gave her a small hug as they exited the room.

**“Okay E. I’m gonna get you a new wet washcloth and clean up the room a bit.“** Mal ran to the bathroom and replaced a sleeping Evie’s washcloth with a fresh one before she started cleaning the room. She wiped down the roundtable, her bed side table, and Evie’s bedside table before spraying disinfectant on everything including the couch. Sometime along the way, Evie woke up and was watching Mal as she cleaned the room. Mal looked back towards Evie and saw that she was awake again. **“Hey E, you’re awake again. How do you feel?”** “i’m tired but im also hungry.” **“Oh good, the boys brought you some pumpkin soup during lunch.”** “mhm okay” “ **Sit up and I’ll help you eat.”** Evie slowly inched up until she was in a sitting position as Mal grabbed the soup and a spoon. **“Hey, I have art club later today so the boys said that they would be here to help you while I’m gone”** , Mal said as she slowly started spoon feeding Evie. **“We still have about 2 hours before they get here.”** “okay.” Mal fed Evie until she ate all the soup which took about an hour since Evie was eating slowly. Mal glanced towards the clock and saw that it read 2:47 p.m. as she looked back at Evie.

“ **You wanna take a bathe while we wait for the guys? It’s been about a day since you last had one and you’ve been sweating a lot. We can wash your hair if you want?”** “yeah… that sounds nice.” Mal helped Evie stand up and slowly walk into the bathroom. **“I’ll get the bathe running while you get undressed okay?”** Mal turned on the warm water and watched as the tub began to steadily fill up as Evie began to remove her shorts and underwear. As Mal stuck a hand in the water to test the temperature, Evie was in front of her struggling to remove her top. “Maaallll,” Evie whined, “I can’t get my shirt off. Can you please help meeeee?” Mal stood up as she walked towards Evie. **“Hey, it’s okay, I’m here to help”.** “Thanks, Mal, “Evie said as she smiled gently. **“No problem. Now get in the tub.”** Evie gently lowered herself into the cool water and let out a sigh of relief. **“How do you feel?”** “uhh I feel better”. Mal placed her hand on Evie’s forehead and nodded. **“Yeah, you don’t feel as hot anymore. Still a little warm but not as hot as before.”** Evie sat in the tub for 5 minutes before Mal started to scrub Evie’s body. **“I’m glad you feel better. I was really worried about you when you first got sick. Usually, on the Isle, we can handle a low-grade fever but yours was higher than anything we’ve ever experienced”** ; Evie just listened as Mal confessed her emotions to her. Mal grabbed Evie’s shampoo and began to scrub her scalp. **“It was pretty scary, especially when you wouldn’t stop vomiting the other night.”** “Really?” **“Yeah, you don’t remember?”** “not really” **“well, your fever was pretty high, so maybe that’s why you don’t remember”.** Mal began to pour water onto Evie’s hair, effectively rinsing out the shampoo before replacing it with conditioner. “Well I don’t feel as bad. My head is still a little cloudy and my chest kind of hurts but it’s still better than before”, Evie softly rasped out as she brightly smiled at Mal. **“You’re a bit warm and sound somewhat congested but yeah, big improvement,”** Mal smiled back. “ **Okay, lets finish rinsing your hair so we can get you out and see how you’re doing.”**

After Mal made sure that Evie was all clean, she drained the tub and wrapped her up in a soft, purple towel and led her back into the room. **“Here, put the thermometer in your mouth as I get your clothes”,** Mal stated as Evie sat on her bed. Evie hummed to herself quietly as Mal quietly made her way to Evie’s dresser and began to pull out some clothes for Evie to wear. As the thermometer beeped, Mal passed Evie her clothes as she read the temperature: 100.3ºF. **“Okaaayyyy, so now you’ve been reduced to a low-grade fever. YAYY!”,** Mal softly cheered as Evie sweetly smiled at Mal. Evie proceeded to put on her underwear before putting on her pajama pants and the long-sleeved shirt Mal gave her **. “I need to blow dry your hair to make sure you don’t get sick…again. We can watch a movie or a show if you’d like”,** Mal said as she walked away to grab the Evie blue blow dryer. Evie sat in front of the tv and began to search for something for them to watch to pass the time. “Hey, want to watch Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood?” **“Yeah, that’s fine”.** Mal crawled behind Evie so that Evie was in between Mal’s legs as she started the dryer up; it took about 15 minutes for Mal to completely dry Evie’s cobalt locks before she put Evie’s hair in a loose French braid.

“Thanks, Mal,” Evie softly thanked as she put her left arm on Mal’s right knee **. “No problem Blue.”** Just then the boys barged into the room with schoolwork in tow. _“Sorry Mal, we got here a soon as we could.”_ **_“Yeah, Carlos almost got detention for nearly blowing up the science lab”_** _“Hey!”,_ Carlos whined, “ _it was an accident, I put the wrong chemical in the mixture and it just got out of hand!”_ Carlos spit out. **“Hey, hey, hey, it’s cool. Evie’s feeling a lot better so you guys should have an easier time.”** The boys looked towards Evie who just stared at them with big doe eyes and a small, sweet smile. “Hi guys”. **_“EVIE!!”_** Jay ran over to Evie and picked her up and swung her around before kissing her forehead and placing her on the ground. _“YOU’RE DOING BETTER!”_ Carlos shouted as he wrapped Evie up in a big hug, grinning from ear to ear. “Her fever finally broke and now she has a temperature of 100.3ºF. That’s something we can handle, although she still shouldn’t leave the room just to ensure that no one else outside the group gets sick.” **_“mhm”_** _“Okay”_ the boys agreed.

**“Okay, I have to get ready for art club, but I’ll see you guys after alright”,** Mal stated as she gave Jay, Evie, and Carlos a quick kiss on the cheek. Mal quickly got changed before she grabbed her art bag and bolted out the door. **_“Okay,”_** Jay clapped _“what should we do first now that you’re feeling better?”_ “Uhhmm, I don’t know.” _“Well when was the last time you had medicine?”_ “About 3 and a half hours ago, maybe?” Evie looked down before looking back up at the boys, “Maybe you guys can tell me about what you guys have been doing the past couple of days.” Evie listened patiently as the boys told her about tourney practice, class, and dealing with Evie’s sickness ** _. “Mal had it worse than we did because she was here through the night, but we were still nervous for you.”_** At that, Evie melted and pulled Carlos into a tight embrace before grabbing Jay by the neck and pulling him close. “Awww, my guys love me!”, Evie gushed. _“Aww stop it, let us go”._ **_“Yeah, you’re messing up my hair”_** , Jay whined. Evie reluctantly let them go as she beamed at them. “Hey, can you guys paint my nails for me?”, Evie asked with a pout and puppy dog eyes. **_“Sure, anything for you princess”,_** the boys grinned as Evie squealed in delight.


	5. Up and At 'Em

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evie's feeling better and the Core 3 get some visitors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mal is bold  
> Carlos is italicized  
>  Jay is bold and italicized

Evie carefully ran over to her bed as Carlos went into the bathroom to grab some nail polish, a bottle of nail remover, and a few handfuls of cotton swabs and cotton balls. Jay followed after Evie and helped her get comfortable as they waited for their white- haired friend. Evie couldn’t contain her excitement as she grinned from ear to ear while bouncing in her spot on the bed. “Jay, I’m so excited!” **_“Why princess, this isn’t the first time we’ve done this”_** “I know, but I think I’m just happy that I feel a lot better. I don’t really remember the first couple of days so it’s nice that I’m here, you know?” With that Carlos, came back into the room and placed the items on the bedside table. _“Alright, feet or hands first?”_ “Uhmm feet I guess”, Evie answered as she smiled. **_“Okay”_** Jay and Carlos each took a foot and gently began to apply the navy-blue polish to Evie’s toenails. “So Los, how have classes been?” _“Oh, uhh for chem lab, we had to design an experiment where we had to find out the absorbance and transmittance of a liquid sample using a spectrophotometer.”_ “Oh?” _“Yeah, we’re supposed to put the sample liquid in a cuvette and run it through the machine. Then we had to dilute it with distilled water and run them through the machine again. We did that about 3 more times. We did it for the other 4 colors we had, overall; it was a fun lab. You would’ve liked it.”_ What about you Jay?”, Evie questioned softly. “how was your week?” **_“Well, Tourney practice was a little brutal. Coach made us run extra laps after practice all because he felt that we weren’t trying hard enough…wish was a lie. We were just tired!”_** Evie nods her head sympathetically as she listens to Jay vent out his feelings. **_“I think part of the reason was that we were worried about you.”_** _“Yeah, so it was a little hard for us to focus on tourney when you were in here sick.”_ At that Evie smiled, a softer smile, as she looked at her boys. “Aww you guys! I’m sorry I made you worry”, she softly said. **_“No, no, no, it’s not your fault.”_**

Evie continued to watch the boys as they finished her toenails and moved onto her fingernails. As the boys were busy painting her index fingers, she heard a soft knock on the dorm door. _“I got it!”_ Carlos yelled as he raced to open the door. “I wonder who it is, Mal still has an hour of art club left and she wouldn’t necessarily knock if she forgot her key.” **_“Please, I don’t even think she knows the meaning of the word”_** Jay retorted, causing Evie to giggle. As Carlos cautiously opened the door, he was met face to face with Li Lonnie and Jane, who was holding something covered in aluminum foil. “Hi guys” _“Heyyyy…what are you guys doing here?”_ Carlos asked suspiciously. They had only been in Auradon for 3 months and were still getting used to the fact that they had friends, or people that cared, outside their main friend group. “umm, we noticed that Evie wasn’t in class the pass few days. Mal either. We just wanted to see if everything was alright.” “We would’ve come sooner but we kinda wanted to give you guys your space. We know you’re not used to people checking in on you,” Jane softly stated. Carlos smiled at the two young women before him before gently opening the door wider. **_“Hey Los, who was it?”_** , Jay asked as he concentrated on painting Evie’s right ring finger. “It’s Jane and Lonnie”, he replied as they walked back to the bed. Evie looked up and smiled and waved as Jane and Lonnie followed behind Carlos. “Hi guys, what are you doing here?”, she asked with confusion evident in her voice.

“You and Mal hadn’t shown up for classes the past couple days, so we wanted to come by and see if you guys were okay,” Jane said as she walked over to Jay. “Oh! Well… thank you. I wasn’t feeling well so Mal and the boys were helping me.” “What were your symptoms?", Jane questioned out of concern. “Uhh, vomiting, nausea, headache, congestion, cough and fever” _“a high one at that”_ , Carlos whispered as he resumed painting Evie’s fingers. “It sounds like you just had the flu…there’s a lot of different strains so it’s pretty common in Auradon," Lonnie stated. Jane stretched her neck to look over Jay’s shoulder as he continued to perform his task unbothered. “Wow, Jay. You’re really good at that!” **_‘Yeah, this isn’t the first time I’ve done this and it’s definitely not my last.”_ **“Hey, did you guys ever get sick like this back on the Isle?”, Lonnie asked inquisitively as she looked at Evie and Carlos. “I mean, yeah. The Isle isn’t the cleanest place, especially for children, so we often got sick a lot. But it was things we could handle such as a low-grade fever or congestion. But being in Auradon, this was our first time ever having medicine that could treat it, otherwise; we usually just walked it off”, Evie concluded as she stared at Lonnie. “Oh,” Lonnie nodded her head, “I see. Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better because we brought you guys something.” Jane smiled as she took off the aluminum cover and presented the gift to her friends. “We baked you guys peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. We remember you guys saying that you’ve never had home baked cookies, so we thought that it was something simple we could do for you guys”. The 3 Isle teens look at the cookies and back at their Auradon friends with confused and grateful eyes. **_“You guys did that… for us?”_** “Yeah, that’s what friends do,” Lonnie beamed as Carlos grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and took a bite. His eyes widened in joy as he grabbed Jane and Lonnie and enveloped them in a hug. _“Thank you, thank you, thank you! These taste amazing!”_ Jane and Lonnie laughed as they hugged him back, “Really, it’s no problem.” “We gotta get going but if you need anything, you can come to us.” “Yeah, and we can hang out when you’re feeling completely better”, Jane declared as she headed towards the door. “ _Thanks again guys,_ ” Carlos smiled as he quietly shut the door after them.

_“Wow, can you believe it!?”,_ Carlos yelled in excitement as he ran back to his family. _“Mhm, it’s still a little weird that we have such great friends here.”_ “I agree. Like there’s people who care about us besides each other. It makes me kinda happy though” **_“Of course it does princess, I mean look at us; we’re a catch. Auradon is lucky to have us”_** _“Lonnie and Jane are really great, so I guess were lucky too.” **“Hey,”**_ Jay gently smack her hand as she reached for a cookie, **_“you have to wait until we’re done, or you’ll mess up our hard work.”_** Evie quietly huffed to herself as she leaned back against her pillow and pouted like a child. “Mal would’ve let me have a cookie”, she muttered to herself. _“Well, Mal’s not here. So, sit back and relax. We got you”._ After about 10 minutes, the boys felt that was a long enough time for the polish to completely dry before they let Evie eat a cookie. Evie smiled like a child in a candy store as she laid back down and allowed herself to enjoy her peanut butter cookie. Carlos felt her forehead as Jay went to get some Dayquil and water. _“Yeah, still warm and congested but better”. **“How much of this stuff is she supposed to take?”**_ _“Ugh Jay! Read the label before you pour the medicine. Look it says 30 mL right here.” **“Well sorry, how was I supposed to know?”**_ , Jay responded sarcastically as Carlos snatched the medicine cup out his hands. **_“Here Blue, drink some more water so we can give you this crap.”_**

Evie nodded as she wiped the cookie crumbs from her mouth and drank the water before opening her mouth to take the Dayquil in one gulp. _“There. That should help with your congestion and cough.”_ The boys did some homework as they all waited for Mal to get back from art club, which should be over in about 15 minutes. Evie quietly watched the boys do History and Reading homework from bed as she listened to some soft music that the boys had turned on for her. She went in and out of consciousness as she got lost in her own thoughts and the warmth of her bed. She figured she had fallen asleep as the next thing she was Carlos and Jay hugging Mal as they walked out the door.

Mal crawled onto the bed and was inches away from Evie’s face as she used her right hand to gently stroke Evie’s left cheek. **“hi Blue”** , she whispered as she searched Evie’s big, brown eyes. “Hi Mal,” she groggily greeted as she rubbed her eyes and yawned, ‘how was art club?” **“good, good. We were trying to decide what theme we wanted to do for our volunteer mural.”** “what’d you guys decide?” **“uhh, it wasn’t an eventful meeting. There’s still some debate about whether we should do a mural or a sculpture.”** “oh” **“yeah doesn’t matter, I’m just happy to be back in here.”** “There’s cookies if you want some. Jane and Lonnie baked them.” **“oh yeah?”** she responded as she grabbed a chocolate chip cookie. “yeah, they stopped by to check on us since we weren’t in class. I like them.” Mal smiled at her sickly friend as she took a bite of her cookie, **“Me too Blue. Me too”.**


	6. Here We Go..again

Ben's dialogue is italicized so it's easier to follow the conversations taking place.

* * *

After Mal finished conversing with Evie, she took a quick shower, leaving Evie to her own devices. Evie played on her phone and thought back on her week; she really had some great friends, inside and outside of Auradon. The boys and Mal took great care of her in one of her worst moments; she was grateful for them. Mal entered the room, drying her hair with a towel. **“Hey, I can hear you thinking. What’s on your mind?”** “Not much, just thinking about how you guys took care of me and about Jane and Lonnie visiting.” **“Yeah, they did a good thing. I guess that’s what it’s like living in Auradon.”** “mmm” “ **Let’s go to bed, it’s been a long couple of days”**. “Okay. Night Mal”. Mal kissed Evie on the forehead as she turned off the room lights, **“Night Evie. Sweet nightmares** ”. With that, Mal and Evie headed to bed for the night.

Wednesday morning, Mal found herself sitting in bed, watching Evie sleep peacefully. Mal sighed to herself quietly, Evie never really let herself sleep in when they were on the Isle. According to the Evil Queen, getting up early to apply makeup was more important than “beauty sleep”. As Mal headed into the bathroom to complete her morning routine, she heard a soft knock on the door. She looked at the door inquisitively; if it were her boys, they would’ve just barreled through as if the door was nonexistent. Mal made her way to the door and was surprised to see none other than King Ben behind the door. **“King Ben”,** Mal curtsied sarcastically, **‘to what do we owe the pleasure?”** _“Uh hey Mal, I heard Evie was sick. I would’ve been here sooner, but I had meetings to attend.”_ “ **It’s okay Ben, you’re the King after all. You don’t have to worry about us VKs.”** _“Hey, I brought you guys over, it’s my responsibility to make sure you guys are adjusting fine and that if you need anything, I can provide it for you.”_ “ **Thank you, Ben. We’ve just been dealing with Evie being sick, it was hard at first. We’re fine now though.”** _“Do you guys need anything?”_ **“No, we should be fine”.** _“Okay, how about I talk to your teachers and ask to get an extension on your assignments? Just to help take a load off?”_ **“Thank you, Ben. We really appreciate it.”** _“It’s no problem,”_ Ben smiled greatly. _“And when she’s feeling better, maybe we can all hang out. We can catch a movie or…or go to the mall…or eve-“_ Mal raised her hand, causing Ben to stop his rant look up at her with wide eyes **. “Ben! Stop… it’s okay”,** Mal chuckled. **“I’ll let you guys know when she’s good to go.”** _“Okay, okay. Well I have to go…I’ll see you guys later?”_ Mal nodded as she closed the door and back towards her bed.

“who was it?” Mal heard as she crawled back under her plush, blanket **. “oh. it was just Ben. he wanted to see how you were doing and wants to hang out when you’re up for it”,** Mal whispered softly to Evie as she curled up and closed her eyes. “yeah, we should definitely…do thaaaa”, Evie trailed off as she fell back asleep. Mal and Evie didn’t rise again until about 10:30 am, when the room was warmer and brighter. Mal yawned as she sat up and rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes while looking over towards Evie. She was still asleep so Mal took it upon herself to finally get out of bed and get dressed for the day. Walking over to her dresser, she pulled out a simple black shirt with electric blue and lime green horizontal stripes and dark blue jeans. She walked back to her window and opened her curtains, which drowned the room in bright, warm sunlight. Mal stood by the window for about 10 minutes, just peacefully looking out at nature. She may hate the sunlight, but she was part fae; her and nature were one. Sighing contentedly, Mal turned around and was met with Evie being showered in sunlight. Evie slowly sat up as she yawned and rubbed the remaining sleep out of her eyes. However, Mal couldn’t help but notice the way the light made Evie’s messy, sapphire waves an even more vibrant blue hue, if that were possible and how Evie’s amber brown eyes were dripping with honey. She was in awe of her sister’s natural beauty; if only her mother could see it the way everyone else did. It was moment’s like these that Mal cherished; Evie’s messy hair with no makeup on and still slightly sleepy. The Evil Queen would never allow Evie to look like this on the Isle, but they were in Auradon, they could be whatever they wanted.

Mal smiled as she quietly made her way over to Evie’s bed. **“morning”** , she whispered as she kneeled on the right side of Evie’s bed to look her in the face. “morning”, she quietly yawned, “why are you smiling at me?” **“you’re just… you’re so beautiful. Inside and out”,** Mal responded as she stroked Evie’s right arm. “Oh!” Evie hesitated before mirroring Mal’s expression and responded, “Thank you Mal, that means a lot to me.” **“Well it’s true and I hope someday you’ll really believe it with no questions. But enough of that, how are you feeling?”** Mal asked as she hopped on Evie’s lap. Evie chuckled softly before trying to push the smaller girl off, “Maaaallll, get off. I feel alright, just a small cough and some congestion maybe.” **“Okay. Okay, I’m off. You can stop pushing now.”** “Hey Mal?”, Evie nervously played with her fingers as she she looked down, “when do you think I can go back to classes?”, she finally asked as she looked up towards Mal. **“oh…uhh. I’m not sure. Maybe I can ask Ben or Jane or Lonnie.** ” Mal knew that Evie didn’t necessarily “miss” school per se, she knew that Evie liked the opportunity to learn since her mother believed that it didn’t matter if a woman was smart so long as she found a prince.

Evie was deprived of that chance growing up and was taking full advantage of it now that they were here; without her mother. The question broke Mal’s heart a bit. **“Yeah, I’ll ask them for you okay? I promise. I’ll just text the boys and ask them to invite everyone over for lunch”.** Evie brightened up as Mal spoke and gave her a dazzling smile, “Really?! Thanks, Mal!” “Mal sadly smiled at Evie, not that she noticed, and walked away to retrieve her phone to text her boys about the idea. Of course, they immediately agreed so all they had to do now was wait. **“Hey E, do you feel good enough to sketch a design or to sew? Maybe you can do that.”** All Mal really wanted was to keep Evie occupied until she got an appropriate answer to Evie’s question. She loved her friends and wanted them to be happy especially since it was supposed to be easier in Auradon. “Uhm, I guess I can decide what fabrics to use for some sketches I did the other day”.

Mal and Evie tended to their own devise until about 12:15p.m when Evie arose from her sewing table to show Mal some of her recent ideas. **“Wow Blue, these are interesting. Tell me some more about ‘em”,** she inquired. Evie didn’t argue as she animatedly told Mal about why she chose certain fabrics and colors for her designs. “…and that’s why orange and brown and green work well together.” Before Mal could respond, Carlos came through with Jane, Ben, and Lonnie, followed by Jay who was carrying a variety of dishes. _“Hey guys, we got your message saying you wanted to eat lunch together. So here we are,”_ Ben smiled as he sat on the floor in front of the tv. Lonnie sat on the couch while Jane took up residence on the floor, to the right of Ben and to the left of Carlos. As Jay placed the food on the coffee table, Mal and Evie sat next to Lonnie on the couch and whispered small hellos. Ben flipped the tv to some random channel; it was just for background noise really. The group of teens ate and conversed with each other happily until lunch hour was over. Ben helped Carlos and Jay pick up the food trays and containers and clean off the coffee table while Jane and Lonnie said goodbye to the girls.

Jay and Carlos kissed Mal on the cheek goodbye and Evie on the forehead; part of it was because it was something they normally did but the other reason was to discretely check her temperature. Satisfied that she wasn’t burning up or even madly warm, they walked out the door and headed back to class. As Ben was made his way through the door, he stopped in his tracks and turned around to speak to the two female VKs. _“Oh, by the way, you should be able to go back to classes this upcoming Monday. You should probably get out this weekend and walk through the garden or something, get some fresh air. Alright guys, I’ll see you later and thanks for inviting us over”_ , Ben beamed brightly as he made his exit. Evie squealed as Mal closed the door behind their kingly friend. “EEEEE!! Mal did you hear?! I can go back to school on Monday!”, Evie happily yelled as she slightly jumped off the ground. **“Yeah I did. I’m happy for you. So, all we have to do now is to make sure you take some cough syrup and stay hydrated.”**

For the next couple of days, Mal made sure that Evie got enough rest, cough medicine, and water as the new week was approaching. They followed Ben’s advice and took walks outside everyday which benefited them both greatly. Evie was getting fresh air and stretching her limbs while Mal was able to physically be surrounded by nature. Monday rolled around and Evie was as excited as a kid in a candy store. She woke up early, or at her usual time, and applied a small amount of makeup; just enough for a natural look and got dressed for class. Even though Evie missed a week of classes and assignments, she didn’t feel she was far behind enough to the point that she couldn’t catch up. She made sure to get all the assignments she missed form each of her teachers before making her way back to the dorm room with her friends. Jay and Carlos kicked of their shoes as they laid on the couch and Evie’s bed, respectively. The core 4 were making progress with their homework when they heard a soft sneeze come form somewhere in the room. Jay’s head popped up as he looked around the room to find the source of the sneeze. Mal and Evie looked around just as alarmed until all eyes landed on Carlos whose hand was covering his nose. He sheepishly looked at his friends as he removed his hand and gave a small wave, _“Oops”._ Mal sighed and grabbed the cough medicine and a new thermometer…. this was gonna be a long week… again.


End file.
